Highlights from Crimefest: Creating Sherlock
* 03 June 2013

On Saturday June 1 2013, a special event was held in Bristol
during CrimeFest, the International Crime Fiction Convention. Named
'Creating Sherlock', an early afternoon panel saw Steven Moffat,
Mark Gatiss and Sue Vertue discuss the inception of the series and
the status of production on the third, which is currently on a
brief production hiatus until later in the summer. As Steven Moffat
noted, in typically amusing fashion while acknowledging the
protracted development of the new series around other projects,
"We've just sort of stopped for a bit while Martin [Freeman]
pops back to New Zealand for a bit to film more of The Hobbit.
We're actually going to resume shooting Sherlock next
Christmas." While Mark Gatiss jokingly concluded, "This is
an exclusive, as it's actually going to be nine films."

"What connects us with Doyle is a sense of fun. Our crime is
definitely on the fun side of the spectrum. It's not all grim
serial killing. Well, there IS some of that." - Mark Gatiss,
commenting on the BBC series' aesthetic, and in particular, its
presentation of crime and criminality.

"Getting Sherlock right is a lot to do with comedy.... It's
almost set up like a sitcom……It's kind of surprising how much of it is funny. Apart from
when anyone dies. That's sad." - Steven Moffat.

"They said 'oh great' within about a sentence of us
starting. We had the pitch all set out and they said yes
immediately." - Steven Moffat on the initial pitch of Sherlock
to the BBC.

"In terms of universal brand and the most famous character
in English literature, doing that without having to spend money on
period settings was a no brainer." - Mark Gatiss added.

"We wanted to stop doing all this nonsense of having to put
him in period, as that takes him away from the audience. We kept
saying 'this is not a remake, it's a restoration.' This is what
Sherlock Holmes seemed like to a contemporary audience. He wasn't
some old, crusty legend in the past, he wasn't aged fifty, he
wasn't a rundown skipper. He was a dangerous young man doing really
modern stuff in London." - Steven on placing Sherlock Holmes
in the modern age, in the context of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's
writing.

"[The floating text] was actually the genius of Paul
McGuigan. We shot The Great Game first and there was a lot of
texting [in The Great Game] and he decided to have it as floating
text and I remember he said that and I thought it essentially
sounded like doom and the worst idea ever, and then I happened to
be going past the cutting room and I saw it and it worked as I
thought it would. So when I was writing A Study in Pink I thought
we could do it for [Sherlock's] thoughts as well. It's a lot down
to Paul, not just the floating text, but a whole lot of other
things and his obsession with wallpaper! He has a visual
stylishness that seemed to come out of nowhere and was very very
keen on the idea that you should see [Sherlock] as if Sherlock
Holmes is behind the camera. You should see the world as he sees
it. A brilliant choice of director on the part of my wife… and when
I looked that way [toward Mark Gatiss and Sue Vertue) and said to
my wife, I mean Sue." - Steven Moffat speaking of Paul
McGuigan (director of A Study in Pink, The Great Game, A Scandal in
Belgravia and The Hounds of Baskerville) and the distinctive visual
look of Sherlock.

"It was an opportunity to make a massive impact. We had
absolutely no idea how much it was going to be taken into people's
hearts. It's incredible and we're very thrilled by it because we
had no idea. And it's absolutely true to say this, that between
8:30 and 9:30 on that Sunday night, Benedict Cumberbatch became a
star, and it's the sort of thing that's only supposed to happen in
stories." - Mark Gatiss on the success of Sherlock.

"Women kept writing to Doyle to ask if they could be
Sherlock Holmes' housekeeper. That's an odd thing. I like James
Bond but I don't write in saying can I clear up after him. Then I
realised that they had designs beyond being his housekeeper."
- Steven Moffat commenting on the success of the original Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle canon.

"Some of the equivalents were very straight forward. It's
still a flat share, probably imagine people would make an
assumption about them living together which they wouldn't in 1895,
which was fun joke to run through the series. Immediate things like
the three patch problem would be fun, but then there were the big
question of things like forensics, which was a bit of a stumbling
block. Obvious Doyle essentially invented it and in those days
Holmes was the person who did it. Now everyone does it, but it's
still quite straight forward, as [Sherlock's] still the genius in
the room. Obviously now Scotland Yard do all the DNA stuff, but
he's the man that can put it all together." - Mark Gatiss
discussing the challenges of updating Sherlock Holmes for the
21st Century.

"Trying to make [Sherlock Holmes] credible is exhausting.
And you do see that Doyle, having started magnificently in A Study
in Scarlet and The Sign of Four, starts to not bother," Steven
Moffat noted while discussing the challenge of writing deductions.
"We desperately try to come up with a cleverer one," Mark
Gatiss adds, "but at the same time when you can blithely say of
course he's the child's father because of his trousers, it's just
going to be a joke."

When asked with Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who, if J.J. Abrams
[director of Star Trek and future director of Star Wars] had rung
up to asked them how to do it Steven Moffat answered, "He's
doing quite well."

"We can't allow the fact they [Steven Moffat and Mark
Gatiiss] are both doing both shows, to make artificial differences
when they aren't there as no one cares that it's us. In the truest
way you could say they are almost two sides of the same coin, but
I'm never exactly sure what that means. They are different people.
Sherlock is aspiring to what The Doctor is running away from. The
Doctor doesn't want to move away from humanity, while Sherlock
Holmes wants to rise above all that. They wouldn't especially get
on with on another I dare say. The Doctor would be thrilled to met
Sherlock, where Sherlock would probably punch him." - Steven
commenting on the suggestion that The Doctor is a very Sherlock
Holmesian character. Asked whether or not Benedict
Cumberbatch would ever consider playing Doctor Who, Steven
answered, "Playing two icons at the same time would be very
confusing. I think you only have one of those parts in your
life" with Mark adding, "But that's not to say he couldn't
play James Bond!"

"They're very well behaved, they send a lot of presents and
a lot of food" Sue Vertue revealed about the fans of the
series. "We test it!" Mark Gatiss confirmed. "Between
the series it's crazy and filming in London now, we have crash
barriers with two hundred and fifty people behind it. North Gower
Street, which is our Baker Street, is like [filming] in front of a
live studio audience." Mark Gatiss observed.

"I think Sue, Mark and I will continue for as long as we are
allowed to. We do have, by accident, probably the two biggest film
stars in the world, but Benedict commissioned the fourth
series" - Steven reiterating the desire to continue producing
the series. There was an acknowledgement that the future of the
series depends upon the availability of Benedict Cumberbatch and
Martin Freeman, and Steven made it clear there was no way the
series would continue in any form without either of the actors -
recasting is out of the question.

"Keeping bees is very sexy and extremely important for the
future of our species" - Mark, joking on how far into the
character's lives they would like to take the series, and whether
or not bee keeping would work for TV.

"I knew nothing about Sherlock Holmes and even now I
don't, so it's quite interesting for me, when I get the script, is
it has to work as a script, whether it is based on the original
stories [or it's new material]" - Sue Vertue on whether it
matters how closely an episode's plot sticks to the canon
material.

"[Stephen Thompson was brought in] as it was really because
originally we were going to do six [sixty minutes episodes] and I
was going to write two and Steven was going to too." Mark
Gatiss recalled about Stephen Thompson joining the writing trio of
Sherlock. "We knew him as a good writer. He's a very very
clever man and very funny. He has a mathematical tattoo, that's how
good he is!" Steven Moffat continued.

"Doyle said Sherlock had a certain
quiet primness of dress, so we felt he needed the coat and wears
rather good suits," Mark Gatiss commented when asked
about the appearance of Sherlock Holmes. "There's a character
detail in there that we've only ever really hinted at, as he checks
out the mirror quite a lot. So while he says I'm above all such
matters, he has the attitude that 'I have no interest in women, but
by God they better have an interest in me'" - Steven Moffat
suggested.

"Does that mean that Doyle didn't
have anyone reading his books" Sue Vertue asked her two Holmes
aficionado series writers after the subject of Doyle's
inconsistency of names through the canon, with James Moriarty's
brother also being named James and Watson's wife calling her
husband James instead of John, which lead to the 'H' in John's name
from Sherlock standing for Hamish as it was the Scottish name for
James. "He had an editor," Steven Moffat answered,
"And if you read Doyle's letters [to and from them], he does
get notes, he does get feedback, but I think he ignores most of it.
He must have said, "I've finished that one now.""The
incredible genius is," Mark Gatiss added, "is that he
wrote these stories sometimes in crowded rooms at parties, so the
fact that only a few mistakes creep in, is practically incredible."
"I can only attribute that some of his stories flopped so badly at
the end, was the fact that somebody knocked on the door, with him
saying, "Oh hang on, I'll just finish The Greek Interpreter." "The
engineers thumb - the whole scene where obviously Holmes and Watson
were meant to be trapped in a lime press [is] missing, because
someone wanted a game of cricket!" Steven concluded.

"Every screen villain, ever super villain since Doyle wrote
that story [The Final Problem] has been a rip off of Moriarty. They
all talk like him... That brilliant exchange in The Final Problem
is every single super villain/ super hero exchange in one." -
Steven Moffat on the inherent challenge of bringing Moriarty to a
modern audience.

"[Mrs Hudson in Sherlock] has more than anyone has ever
given her before and Una [Stubbs] is a huge part of that. She's so
instantly loveable and we find out a little bit more about her in
the next series." - Mark Gatiss, with the big tease of the
panel.

"[Sherlock is content playing along with people saying that
he does, because that's easier. I think he's more interesting that
that, I think he has chosen his path. He wants to be the highest
intelligence on the planet so he has removes all distractions. I
think his brain is so interesting that the rest of his body isn't
of interest to him." Steven Moffat on whether Holmes has a
condition like Aspergers Syndrome. "Sherlock is very happy in
his own skin. Lots and lots of adaptations make the sort of
strange, schoolboy error of finding him shooting up in the toilet,
in the middle of the most exciting case of his career" Mark
Gatiss added.

"In the original stories, he's a perfectly happy man. He
gets to go and solve crimes with his friend Doctor Watson. He's
having a great time. Both of them are having a laugh in that flat.
They loved it." - Steven Moffat commented, which sounded
remarkably like he and Mark Gatiss working on Sherlock and Doctor
Who today.